An action in support of the
East Timorese freedom struggle

. December 7 was the 21st anniversary of the Indonesian militarists' invasion of East Timor.From
this date in 1975 the East Timorese people have lived under the most brutal of fascist
occupations. Scores of thousands of people have simply been mowed down by the US-supplied
and supported Indonesian armed forces. Scores of thousands more have died (and continue to
die) of the disease and hunger which are consciously built-in components of the genocidal
policies of the racist Jakarta government. In fact "respectable" (i.e. non-communist or non-leftist)
sources put the number of East Timorese murdered in these or other ways during the past 21
years as high as 200,000--one third of the population.

. But the East Timorese people haven't just been passively dying victims which we should weep
over. They've fought like tigers against the occupation forces in every corner of the country.
Really large political actions have been organized and many, many armed battles against the
occupation army planned and carried out. No one can say that the people of East Timor haven't
more than earned the right to decide their own fate (except the Indonesian fascists and their
friends around the world of course). But this is not all. The past two decades of struggle by the
people of East Timor is filled with inspiring moments and important lessons (or potential
lessons) for future battles. While it's true enough that their resistance has been choked off and
driven underground by the very well equipped Indonesian death machine it's also true that it has
never been stamped out. It remains a live ember, continuing to emit heat. In certain
"atmospheric" conditions it flares up (as in June of this year in Baucau), and under just the right
conditions it can turn into a raging firestorm. Lastly, the struggle of the East Timorese for
liberation from the jackboot of the Indonesian militarists has won support among workers and
other oppressed people around the world. It deserves this support, and more of it. We want to do
our part in building an inferno which will fry the Indonesian fascists, their supporters and
brethren in the United States, our common exploiters and oppressors.

. This brings us to the December 7 action in Seattle.

. On this anniversary date several dozen people participated in a spirited event at a downtown
mall which was organized by the East Timor Action Network. Leaflets were distributed, guerrilla
theater enacted (which included sharp political commentary by the narrator), and "Free East
Timor!" vigorously shouted over and over despite the rain and cold. Most of the participants then
marched several blocks to the new "Niketown" and there denounced the Nike Corporation's
vicious exploitation of the Indonesian workers, including its employment of child labor.

. This writer believes that there was much positive about this action which should be upheld.
This includes the following:

. (1) The spirit of denouncing not only the crimes of the Indonesian fascists but also the US
imperialist government's role in them.

. (2) The fact that the guerrilla theater drew out the point that both the Republicans and
Democrats have always been in bed with the Indonesian militarists--and particularly the mocking
attack on the utterly sham nature of Jimmy Carter's "human rights" verbiage. (Remember that
Mr. Human Rights did absolutely nothing to defend the rights of the East Timorese when the
Indonesian government launched its invasion and war.)

. (3) The general spirit to go out and do something to educate and mobilize the masses.

. (4) The fact that although the action was relatively small (scores of people rather than hundreds)
it was made up of sincere and energetic people (most of whom were quite young) and therefore
shouldn't be scoffed at in the slightest.

. The old and tired and discouraged former radicals and former Marxist revolutionaries from the
'60s and '70s today whimper about the gloominess of the political situation, belittle the present
left-wing demonstrations, sneer about the size of the Communist Voice Organization, and so on.
Their subjective despair blinds them to the existence of the new forces entering the movement
and seeking ways to push it forward. These new forces provide the living basis for changing the
situation (within certain historically evolved parameters) and are the hope for the future. And
being someone who is old enough to remember, I should add that even in the '60s and '70s there
were times when actions which were not widely promoted (and this one was not) were as small
or even much smaller than this one was.

. But besides just isolating some of the positive things about the Dec. 7 action it may be even
more important to consider a couple things about the general agitational approach used in the
short leaflets and articles which were produced that actually cut against the building of the kind
of movement in support of the East Timorese people which can in the long run really assist them.

. First of all, those who came to the event generally understood that both the Democrats and
Republicans have supported Suharto and the Indonesian establishment since the mid-60s, they
generally recognized that these ladies and gentlemen are representing the economic and political
interests of US capitalism when they do this (i.e., it's not a question of their shipping arms and
aircraft to Indonesia and having no idea of what they're used for), yet the organizers of the event
handed them leaflets to pass out which contained appeals like "call your (?!) congressman and
tell them not to sell F-16's to Indonesia" and "please contact your (?!) senators". True enough, the
latter people may change their rhetoric, shift about, maneuver, may even vote for different
policies (although still policies which serve the exploitative aims of capitalism) if a really mass
and militant movement develops on some issue. But contacting or calling those who formulate
the policies we oppose in the interest of a very definite social class (the class whose political
representatives they really are, i.e., the US monopoly capitalist class) does not build such a
movement. (Better that we spend our time writing or contacting our fellow workers and fellow
students.) Worse, it undermines building it by propping up the naive illusion that the governing
politicians really will represent the desires of the masses once they understand what those desires
are. (And in this regard one could point out that these politicians understand well enough that
the majority of the workers and poor people in the United States--the majority of the
people--oppose the vicious round of attacks which were first launched on them in the late 1970s
and which continue today. That doesn't prevent Congress from launching new and
ever-worsening attacks with each session however. No, for there to be a change in this situation
the workers and poor must take matters into their own hands by building up resistance struggles.
And the more that hopes that some congressperson somewhere is going to do something are cast
aside the more rapidly and successfully will this occur.)

. Secondly, the same leaflets made a point of the fact that the Indonesian government's invasion
of East Timor was in violation of UN resolutions. The implied premise of this agitational
approach is that UN resolutions are formulated out some "universal" sense of goodness, justice,
etc., (and therefore should be supported) rather than the cold economic and political calculations
of capitalism--especially the calculations of the big imperialist powers which dominate the UN.
Moreover, this approach leaves aside the question of why it was that the resolutions regarding
East Timor remained toothless scraps of paper. (And the issue that other UN resolutions, such as
resolutions on Korea or Iraq, have been backed up--backed up by the launching of brutal and
reactionary wars---is conveniently forgotten about.) Finally, the facts that UN resolutions
supported the Indonesian government's coercive annexation of West Papua and the UN has since
been silent about the Indonesian government's vicious war against the freedom movement there,
silent about the Indonesian government's racist and genocidal policies toward the Melanesian
population, and so on, is forgotten about too (if it's known about).

. God help us if we place our future in the hands of the UN! And God help us too if we guide the
masses of people toward placing their trust in the activities of "our" senators and congresspeople!

. In summation: The December 7 action was an encouraging and in some ways exciting event.
The participants whole-heartedly supported "freedom for East Timor", "popular democracy for
Indonesia", "stop US support for the dictatorship in Indonesia" (and similar slogans raised on a
leaflet), and struggled to win others to these positions. But the literature they were given to pass
out (which a good number of people did distribute) contained a harmful political orientation
which should be actively opposed.